In San Diego, if a person gets a traffic ticket and goes to court, if the officer that wrote the ticket doesn't show, the charge will be dismissed, typically "without prejudice", meaning that no facts were established in the decision, and the prosecutor is free to charge the person again.

With traffic tickets, most people are happy enough to get off without paying the ticket.,

But what about where the person is charged with a felony?

What if they are tried, convicted, imprisoned and then released because it was shown that the prosecutor never really had any evidence?